(飯豊山) Mt. Iide Hike

SEMI-FREE MOUNTAIN HUTS EVERYWHERE! I wanted a paid one, but NADA! Oh, and no reservations needed either, so go nuts! Oh, and I'm saying semi-free, because they don't cost an arm and a leg, but they still cost money - JPY2,000-3000 a night to be specific. Either way, let's get down to planning.

The path is too convoluted, that I'm choosing one and I am sticking to it in this entire post. There are plenty of routes and trails and trailheads, and if there are two or three, I do try to make the effort to write them all down. But in this case... I'm sticking to one. Sorry.

Budget: JPY25,500 (~USD238) from Tokyo

• JPY24,000+. Roundtrip train, Tokyo Station to Oguni Station.
• JPY1,500. Roundtrip bus from Oguni Station.

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 2,105m / 6,906ft)

• Target: 2020
• Difficulty: 4 out of 5
• Route below is around 28.4kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲2,918m/ ▽2,922m (20h)
• Map Link

When to Go
The bus to Iide-sansou only runs from July 1 to August 31.

Special Notes

• Weather forecast: English / Japanese.
• Mountain huts - here's a list. I did call/email them, and there are no reservations. Case to case basis, there will be someone manning the place. So just show up, and pray there is space for you. General information on overall status, etc of the mountain huts in this mountain range is in this Japanese website, which looks someone with a benevolent heart decided to make an online bulletin board and basically write everything. It can be overwhelming, but it has the critical, up-to-date information you need. For this itinerary, I plan to stay at the following mountain huts:
• Kairagi-goya (梅花皮小屋). JPY2,000 a night, can accommodate 53 people.
• Motoyama-goya (本山小屋). Can accommodate 50 people, based on July 2020 info, there is no water source as everything is still frozen. 
• Trailhead. The one I chose starts and ends at Iide-sansou (飯豊山荘). To get there, get on a train to Oguni Station, then take a bus from Oguni Station to Iide Sanso. 
• Tokyo to Oguni Station. You can take the train from Tokyo to any of the following:
• via Niigata Station, JPY12,170 one way. Earliest train arrival: 10:13am.
• via Yonezawa Station, JPY11,900 one way. Earliest train arrival: 11:47am.
• Given this, you might want to stay there the night before.
• Bus, Oguni Station to Iide-sansou. Updated info should be here, just click "南部線", which is the third one as of checking.

Bus schedule. Oguni Station (小国駅) to Iide-Sansou (飯豊山荘)


Bus schedule Iide-Sansou ((飯豊山荘) to Oguni Station (小国駅)


Itinerary

• Start hike. Haha. I'm too lazy to write one, and if someone is looking for it here, leave me a comment and I'll update this. ;)